Warmest greetings of the Season to one and all!
We welcome this annual opportunity to tell you about our family and we look forward to hearing from many of you about your families also.
Once again this year, most of the big news in our family came out of Vancouver. Darren and Sue welcomed another son to their family and bought a house. 
Sue went back to work in January. Before long they spotted a house that they thought they could afford and improve. We wondered why they were in such a hurry to move when they had just nicely finished renovating their condo. We soon learned that Sue was pregnant again and they were going to need more space. They moved to the house on May 1. It was built in 1912, had seen some renovations in the 1980s, but was badly in need of a facelift. They began renovations immediately with the intention of making the basement suite livable, then moving down there while they do the upstairs. Darren renovated the upstairs bedrooms and the basement suite is getting close. Cameron Lynden Schwartz arrived into the middle of the renos on September 3.
In other Vancouver news, Darren and Justin were able to make it to Regina for Easter, Sue and Justin went to the cottage in Ontario at the end of July where Darren joined them for a week, and Sue fit in a couple of trips to Kelowna and Seattle to show off Cameron. Darren finished his P. Eng designation. Darren spent the first two weeks of November on another trip to Brazil. He arrived home on a Friday, the day before we arrived for a visit. Unfortunately, two other people who were to go down the next week did not have their paperwork in order, so he had to leave again for another two weeks on the following Tuesday. He was not too happy to leave his boys again after such a short time, but they are pretty flexible and accommodating at his work and this is the price he has to pay.We are very excited that their whole gang is coming to Regina for a week at Christmas. Justin will be two in February and is such a sponge. He repeats everything he hears and copies everything he sees. Cameron is at the stage where he smiles and laughs for you and makes those baby cooing sounds. I am sure they will both be centres of attention here. A few days after returning home, they are off to China to visit Sue’s sister and her family. They are there because Mark is posted in Shanghai for work.
The highlights of Carla's and Tyler's year revolved around school. Carla finished her network technician course at SIAST in May. Even though all previous graduates from her course had jobs before they graduated, in her course, no one received an offer – I guess the market was temporarily saturated. Anyway, she finally got an offer from CGI Group to start in November. She started with pretty decent pay and benefits. I am sure she will move up quickly when she has an opportunity to demonstrate her abilities. During the fall semester at SIAST, she taught two nights a week, instructing a component of the same networking course she completed in spring. She also did occasional tutoring.
Tyler has been unemployed since he was laid off by Global late last year. He started a two year program at SIAST in September, training to do graphic arts for the printing trade. His skills should be somewhat transferable to web design also. They made trips to Edmonton last winter and this summer to visit Tyler's brother, his wife, and their newborn baby girl.
Laura & Brett kept busy being new homeowners. They sodded their front yard and Brett put a pretty neat little waterfall and creek in their front yard. Celeste and I framed, insulated, and drywalled the basement last winter and finished off the electrical this fall. We should be able to finish off the basics in the New Year. Then it will be a question of decorating. Laura continues to work as a pharmacist at the East Regina Superstore. Some days she thinks about looking elsewhere, but so far she is reasonably content there. Since Brett has evening classes three nights a week this fall, Laura is taking some evening recreational classes. She is doing yoga, Irish clog dancing (Laura O'Schwartz!), and occasional swimming.
When Brett's term ended at the Canadian Plains Research Centre, he started with Results Training and Conditioning as a personal trainer and gym manager. He did morning, noon, and suppertime boot camps plus designing and supervising workouts for individual clients. This kept him pretty busy for the summer, but he gave up some of his responsibilities when he started school in Education in September. His program will be only two years since he already has a degree. He is finding it a challenge to make time for his school, part time job, and hockey, but so far he had been keeping up and doing well in school. He interned at St. Dominic Savio School for a half day each week near the end of the semester and really enjoyed it. They went to Vancouver in June to visit Darren, Sue, and Justin. They both remain totally devoted to our grand-dog Charlie.
Most of our travel this year was again to Vancouver. We visited for one week in February, right after Justin's birthday; a week in late April/early May to help with the move; the first two weeks in July to help with babysitting and some renovation work; 
the last two weeks in September for more renovations and to meet the new guy; 
and the last ten days of November because we couldn't wait until Christmas to see our little guys again.
We did manage to fit in a few other trips though. We flew to Mazatlan for a week in January; 
Glenn led another genealogical trip to Banat for three weeks in May/June; we took a road trip to St. Paul, MN and Bismarck, ND, at the end of July; and Glenn made a side trip to Mt. Angel, Oregon for a weekend genealogical conference as part of our September trip to Vancouver. If you are interested in more detail and some pictures from the train trip, Mazatlan, or Banat, you will find them at http://celesteglenn.blogspot.com/ and http://zichydorf10.blogspot.com/.Check http://celesteglennschristmasletter.blogspot.com/ for a copy of this letter that includes several pictures, particularly ones of our darling grandchildren.
Best wishes to all for a joyous Christmas and a wonderful New Year!
Glenn, Celeste, & Gang
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